Federally funded research and development centers (FFRDCs) are public-private partnerships that conduct research and development for the

United States Government The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 50 states, a city within a feder ...

. Under

Federal Acquisition Regulation The Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) is the principal set of rules regarding Government procurement in the United States,. and is codified at Chapter 1 of Title 48 of the Code of Federal Regulations, . It covers many of the contracts issued b ...

br>§ 35.017
FFRDCs are operated by universities and corporations to fulfill certain long-term needs of the government that "...cannot be met as effectively by existing in-house or contractor resources." While similar in many ways to

University Affiliated Research Center A University Affiliated Research Center (UARC) is a strategic United States Department of Defense (DoD) research center associated with a university. UARCs are formally established by the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (US ...

s, FFRDCs are prohibited from competing for work. There are currently 42 FFRDCs, each sponsored by one or more U.S. government departments or agencies.

History

During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

scientists, engineers, mathematicians, and other specialists became part of the United States massive war effort—leading to evolutions in radar, aircraft, computing and, most famously, the development of nuclear weapons through the

Manhattan Project The Manhattan Project was a research and development undertaking during World War II that produced the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States with the support of the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the project w ...

. The end of armed conflict did not end the need for organized research and development in support of the government. As the Cold War became the new reality, government officials and their scientific advisors advanced the idea of a systematic approach to research, development, and acquisitions—one independent of the ups and downs of the marketplace and free of the restrictions on civil service. From this idea arose the concept of FFRDCs—private entities that would work almost exclusively on behalf of the government—free of organizational conflicts of interest and with a stable workforce of highly trained technical talent. The

U.S. Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Sign ...

created the first FFRDC, the RAND Corporation, in 1947. Others grew directly out of their wartime roles. For example,

MIT Lincoln Laboratory The MIT Lincoln Laboratory, located in Lexington, Massachusetts, is a United States Department of Defense federally funded research and development center chartered to apply advanced technology to problems of national security. Research and dev ...

, founded in 1951, originated as the Radiation Laboratory at MIT, and the Navy's Operation Research Group evolved into the Center for Naval Analyses. The first FFRDCs served the Department of Defense. Since then, other government organizations have sponsored FFRDCs to meet their specific needs. In 1969, the number of FFRDCs peaked at 74.

List

The following list includes all current FFRDCs:

History

List

References

Further reading